The best SRPG on the 3DS
This review has been on hold for a long time, it wasn't for any reason in particular I had just been a bit preoccupied with my things in my life but here it is finally. Fire Emblem Awakening is one of the best games I have played this year, from the story to the characters and the action this games is by far a must own (if you can find it that is) for people who like SRPG's and the series as a whole. The story revolves around Chrom a man who must unite many people to beat down the evils that tend to arise at every single point in time. Without ruining the story he is basically task with saving the world like most heroes in these games do. Along the way you recruit various interesting characters like Tharja (a tsundere Sorcerer with the hots for MU) and can even recruit second generation characters like Noire (Tharja's daughter). Did I also forget to mention that this time around you can create a character that actually has impact on the story, it is a cool feature even if it is a bit limited in customization it is still a great feature to find in a game like this. Speaking of daughters every character in this game can get married to another to produce off recruit-able off spring later on not only is this a nice addition it also adds to the game play which I will touch upon later on. The story and the characters in this game are some of the best I have been able to experience in my many years of gaming, and there really isn't a whole lot of bad things to say about either.
The game play is a standard turn based strategy formula, and the ever present weapon trinity is still here in this game (Swords beat Axes beat Lances beat Swords) with all the spellings, weapons, and items that you know and love being present in the game. Instead of 2D sprites the developers decided to go with 3D sprites for the battle animations and for the most part they look and move quite nicely, every animation from simple attacks to critical and double teams are great fun to watch and rarely get boring. New systems have been added called pairing up with increases the leader characters parameters and bumps up the chance of double attacks. This also allows the two characters to have their supports increased, what this does is it gives the two characters better stats on pairing up and if these two characters are the opposite gender reaching S support will prompt them into marriage which results in a optional but powerful recruit-able character in later chapters. But be warned you can only marry one women, so choose carefully. I chose to marry my created unit with Cordelia who has a awesome daughter by the name of Severa on the first play through, I would later go on to marry Tharja on my second attempt and that was great as well (Noire kicks way to much ass). Anyway what I'm trying to get at is this marriage and support system is great and a little overpowered as it is only available to you and not your enemies. The addition of a open and traversable map does a few things for this game, it adds random things that spawn on the map so you can farm exp and level up characters faster and it allows you to access DLC content which in this super packed title is icing on the cake. The DLC is extra content that adds to the package, you do not have to buy it and it has not weight or change on the game it is just there for getting characters from older games. A lot of purists will tell you that random battles destroy what make this a Fire Emblem game but that is bull crap. The developers have also added a new casual mode in which if your units fall in battle they do not die but just leave the field, this is a great addition if you are a person who just wants to play for fun and not have to restart a 2 hour battle because your favourite character got one hit killed by a 2% critical chance. All those purists talk about playing on Classic/Lunatic but they all replay levels if they lose a character.
Fire Emblem Awakening is a great SRPG, it is possibly the best game on the 3DS at this time as well. It is a deep game with tons of content that will satisfy anyone who plays it. This is a must buy for anyone who has a 3DS, but like I said before this game is actually really hard to find the release date was mangled and people either didn't get a copy or like me got mine weeks in advance, hell I was still playing Ni No Kuni when mine copy arrived. Anyway great game and well worth your time and money.
Fire Emblem Awakening: 10/10
+Great Characters/Story
+Simple yet deep game play mechanics
+Jam packed with content
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